English Vowels

Vowels Classification

 

: For vowels, the classification is different; voicing is typically irrelevant, since in most languages, vowels are always voiced, and the vertical (MOA) and horizontal (POA) dimensions are more restricted.

 

: All vowels are produced with a stricture of open approximation, so MOA is irrelevant.

 

: Vowels are produced in a smaller area of the vocal tract- the palatal and velar regions, so POA is not so relevant.

 

: However, different vowels do involve differences in the highest point of the tougue, and the lip shape.

 

: Vertical -> high, mid, low vowels   i.e. sit (high) vs.  sat  (low)

 

: Horizontally  -> front, central, back       i.e. fee (front)   vs.  far  (back)

 

: Lip rounding -> unrounded, rounded vowels    i.e. see(plain)  vs. sue(rounded)

 

: Monophthong  vs. Diphthong   i.e. eɪ̯,ʊu̯,,aɪ̯,aʊ̯,ɔɪ̯ (외워)

 

 

Vowel Chart (=Vowel quadrilateral)

 

 

: One of the difficulties with describing the vowels of English is that there is considerable variation in the vowel sounds unttered by speakers of different accents of English.

 

 

 

Front Vowels

 

High front vowels

-[i:] in see  vs.  [i] in sit

-These two vowels are differnet in length and quality, with [i] being somewhat lower and more centralized than [i:].

-[i:] is often diphthongized.

-Often referred to as tense [i:] and lax [i] /(긴장 모음 vs. 이완 모음)

 

 

Mid front vowels

-[eɪ] in day and [ɛ] in bed

 

Low front vowels

-English has on short low front vowel, found in words like rat: the RP and GA vowel is represented as [æ],

-Many other kinds of BE have a lower vowel, transcribed as [a]

 

 

Back Vowels

 

High back vowels

-long [u:] as in shoe and short [ʊ] as in put

-As with [i:] and [i], the difference is in quality and quantity: [ʊ] is lower and more central, as well as shorter than [u:]

-[u:] is often diphthongized.

 

Mid back vowels

-[oʊ] in goat  vs. [ɔ:] in bought, cause, paw

 

Low cack vowels

-[ɑ] in father as in RP and GA, [ɒ](rounded) in dog as in many British varieties

 

: Many Midwestern speakers and most Far Western speakers of AE do not distinguish between the vowels in pairs of words such as "cot, caught," and "not, naught"  (Ladefoged p.39)

 

 

Central vowels

 

: [ʌ] in cup, luck, fuss

: Word like nurse, fir and worse typically have a mid central unrounded vowel [ɜ] in non-rhotic accents of English.

: [ə], the schwa, is found in syllables which do not carry stress.

: [ə] is also used as part of 'triphthongs'(삼중모음) in non-rhotic accents of English.

-towe, layer, mire, lawyer, lower

-these triphthongs are often subject to reduction.

 

 

RP  vs.  GA

 

RP

: Received Pronunciation (RP) is the accent often referred to as the 'prestige' accent in British society and associated with the speech of the graduates of the English public school. It is defined largely in terms of the social class of its speakers.

 

GA

: General American (GA) tends to be defined in terms of the geographical location, rather than the social class, of its speakers. The term 'GA' is an idealization over a group of accents whose speakers inhabit a vast proportion of the U.S.: it excludes Eastern accents such as the New York City accent, and Southern accents. (Carr 1999, p23)